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Article

13 Jun 2012

Author:
Earth Rights Intl.

The U.S. Supreme Court must preserve the Alien Tort Statute for international corporate human rights cases

This fall, the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (Shell) will go before the U.S. Supreme Court for the second time, with a critical human rights tool hanging in the balance. The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) allows foreigners to sue in US federal courts for egregious human rights abuses...If Shell has their way, the ATS will be largely dismantled and human rights law will be set back decades...Today was the filing deadline for amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs, Nigerian plaintiffs who claim to have suffered violent repression at the hands of a brutal military dictatorship operating in complicity with Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell...According to ERI’s brief...when U.S. or foreign corporations commit human rights abuses abroad, U.S. courts have had the power to hear the victims’ claims since at least 1790.

Part of the following timelines

Earth Rights Intl. files amicus brief in support of petitioners in US Supreme Court for Kiobel v. Shell rehearing

Shell lawsuit (re executions in Nigeria, Kiobel v Shell, filed in USA)